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HISTOIRE POSTALE
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ORVILLE WRIGHT (1871-1948)
Lettre dactylographiée signée à Mark Sullivan. Dayton
(Ohio), 17 juin 1926.
3 p. sur 3 f. in-4 (26,8 x 18,5 cm) de papier vélin à à en-tête
gravé, encre noire.
20 000 / 30 000 €
Très importante lettre d’Orville Wright, célèbre pionnier américain
de l’aviation, au journaliste Mark Sullivan. C’est UNE DES PLUS
COMPLÈTES DESCRIPTIONS PAR WRIGHT LUI-MÊME DES
ESSAIS ET DÉMONSTRATIONS DE VOL HUMAIN QU’IL RÉALISA
AVEC SON FRÈRE WILBUR :
« You ask why it was that the public took so little notice of our
1903 flights and not until 1908 awoke to the fact that human
flight had actually been accomplished. I think this was mainly
due to the fact that human flight was generally looked upon as
an impossibility, and that scarcely any one believed in it until
he actually saw it with his own eyes. Only a few, probably less
than a dozen, saw these first flights of 1903. In 1904 and 1905
the number of witnesses was increased to a hundred or two;
in 1908, to thousands. Hundreds of people have told me that
they saw the first real demonstration of mechanical flight. But as
hardly any two of these had seen the same flight, I have come to
the conclusion that almost no one ever really believed who had
not himself actually seen a flight. It amuses me that practically
every one now thinks he has always believed in its possibility
and that many think that before 1903 they had predicted its early
accomplishment! At the time we couldn’t find a half dozen such.
[…] »
Dans la suite de sa lettre, Wright revient longuement sur l’influence
déterminante que les travaux de Samuel Pierpont Langley, Octave
Chanute et Otto Lilienthal eurent sur leurs propres expérimentations.
Quelques traces de rouille et petites taches